Rocketship Education, a network of charter schools based in California, is changing the way students will use computers in its Learning Labs. Rather than spending chunks of time in computer labs with divided computer stations, students will be using computers in their classrooms, with the help of teachers and aids.

“The integration between the classroom and the Learning Lab was an area that could improve. That’s part of the reason that we made this shift,” said Charlie Bufalino, National Development Associate and former Online Learning Specialist at Rocketship. By moving computers back into the classroom, Rocketship is hoping to form a better connection to what students are doing on computers to what they’re learning in class.

In a PBS Newshour special last month, several teachers said that Learning Lab practice isn’t linked closely enough to what happens in class. Bufalino says that teachers have always been encouraged to use data from online learning to inform their teaching; that said, at its most basic level, the function of the Learning Lab was for skills practice, while teachers focused teaching on what they call higher order thinking skills in class. Now, Rocketship is hoping teachers will have more control over both.

“The integration between the classroom and the Learning Lab needed improvement.”

“The idea is that in this more flexible model, there will be more time for teachers to diagnose and look at the data,” Bufalino said.

The data, however, can be overwhelming for teachers to analyze. Rocketship uses six different online programs, all with separate mechanisms and criteria for feedback. Rocketship’s national office has been working on building proprietary systems that unify all the data, so teachers look at one screen that compares apples to apples at a glance. Their integration system is aligned to the Common Core and teachers can see if students have mastered a skill, what method they used, whether they tried and failed, even how hard they’ve been working on it. Rocketship also invests money into academic deans who visit classrooms, help teachers analyze data and use it to shape their lessons, and generally coach teachers on how they can improve.

“The data drives how we want to group students,” Bufalino said. “It shouldn’t be acceptable that we have these different learning modalities and then still have them moving together in class.” And that’s what was happening to some extent when the Learning Lab was separate from classroom instruction. Teachers taught essentially the same lesson to all students. With the new approach, Rocketship is hoping they can effectively group kids according to their skill sets.

Bufalino was quick to point out that the move away from Learning Labs doesn’t mean the model wasn’t working – Rocketship has consistently posted good math and literacy test scores. They even boast that their students, 90% of whom are low-income and 70% of whom are English Language Learners, have math scores that rival the wealthiest school districts in California.

But Rocketship’s model has been criticized as using “drill and kill” computer games to keep students busy and to save money. But Bufalino says the computer software has helped learners who have fallen behind to catch up and high achievers to steam ahead. “The key is to see the program as a component to a larger academic plan,” he said. “It doesn’t work if it’s the only thing, but when a teacher scaffolds learning on top of that practice and uses it to influence content, it can be very effective.”

Rocketship doesn’t have all the logistics worked out yet, but they are imagining that the change will mean combining classrooms so that teachers are working in teams with the Learning Lab mentors, directing some kids to work on computers, some to do small group work and others to receive tutoring or direct instruction.

Rocketship also hopes that by having their mentors in the same classroom with teachers they can begin to build a teacher pipeline.

Rocketship Schools in the Bay Area have been one of the trailblazers in the ever-changing landscape of blended learning. Located in low-income neighborhoods, the schools’ Learning Labs — where students spend up to 90 minutes a day on computers working on math and literacy software — has been one of its defining characteristics.

But this model isn’t working, some Rocketship teachers say, and because it’s a charter school network with evolving systems, it may soon be changing, according to this PBS Newshour story.

“There’s definitely an aspect of us kind of not knowing enough about what’s going on in learning lab to be able to use that in our classrooms,” said teacher Judy Lavi.

“We don’t yet get data that says, OK, teach this differently tomorrow because of what happened here. And that is — that is a frustration point,” said teacher Andrew Elliott-Chandler.

Adam Nadeau, principal of Rocketship Mosaic Elementary, says he doesn’t think the Learning Lab model will continue next year. And Elliott-Chandler sees a different function for the computers.

“Next year, we’re thinking of bringing the computers back to the classrooms and the kids back to the classrooms,” he said.

But what will that mean for the cost-savings the Learning Labs have so far brought the charter school network?

Rocketship is being closely watched by those both inside and outside education circles. The network’s laser focus and success in achieving high scores by its low-income students, and its resistance to teacher unions, has caught the attention of states across the country.

So far, New Orleans, Nashville, Indianapolis, and Memphis have all approved charters for Rocketship schools to be built and CEO John Danner hopes to open 46 schools in the next five years, and eventually having a million students.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/01/02/will-rocketship-change-its-learning-labs/feed/4What Will Work in New Blended Learning Experiment?http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/10/17/what-will-work-in-new-blended-learning-experiment/
http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/10/17/what-will-work-in-new-blended-learning-experiment/#commentsWed, 17 Oct 2012 17:32:08 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=24385Continue reading What Will Work in New Blended Learning Experiment?→]]>

By Katrina Schwartz

As the blended learning movement grows in the U.S., schools will need to experiment with what works best in different types of settings. There’s still a lot to learn about different types of blended learning models, and a new nonprofit called Silicon Schools will raise and invest $25 million toward that effort.

With partial grants from the Bay Area’s Fisher family (owners of Gap), and the advice of board members Michael Horn from the Innosight Institute and Salman Khan of the Khan Academy, the nonprofit, which has raised $12 million so far, aims to fund new and innovative approaches in existing blended learning programs with grants to each school.

The effort is led by Brian Greenberg, who chronicled the successes and challenges of piloting the Khan Academy in Oakland’s Envision Schools on the Blend My Learning blog. During that process Greenberg and his staff were very open about the pros and cons of integrating technology into the classroom, and other educators added their perspectives to what worked and didn’t work on the blog. Greenberg points to the parts of the program that worked well, namely letting the technology do some of the heavy lifting in terms of grading, lesson planning and collecting analytics that free up teacher time to focus on students.

The movement is in its infancy. There is no blended-learning canon that can be taught to teachers — they are the ones who need to write the playbook.

Giving students more responsibility for the learning process was also a significant outcome of the Envision pilot program. “What we’re finding is that if you make the steps clear and make them accountable, the more you put them in charge of the process the more they amaze,” Greenberg said, referring to students. The pilot program also helped move the class toward “proficiency-based learning,” in which a student is responsible for an intended outcome, but not penalized every step along the way.

Greenberg intends to apply one important lesson he learned from the program to the schools funded by the Silicon Valley Fund: Technology in no way replaces the teacher. At some point the usefulness of technology runs out and the educator’s role is crucial. He also says that technology doesn’t preclude the need for a good classroom management systems and positive school culture. Kids can get off track or “fake” work on sophisticated software just as easily as they could in a traditional classroom.

And lastly, Greenberg says it’s hard for schools to navigate the many tools that populate the ed-tech space, especially when each is tailored to a different subject and use. He says the whole field needs to become more integrated, almost like an app store for ed-tech, and one that works across platforms. Schools don’t have access to endless money and as a result, ed-tech entrepreneurs and businesses need to design more precisely with the client in mind.

What’s interesting about the fund’s goal is that very little is proscriptive. Greenberg was clear to recognize that this movement is in its infancy. There is no blended-learning canon that can be taught to teachers. Rather Greenberg says the educators need to write the playbook. They need to be at the table and in the laboratories of innovation. And if all goes according to plan, in five years the various Silicon Schools will be networking with one another, sharing ideas with schools from around the world and thinking about how to scale up and replicate best practices.

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The fund sees itself as the infusion of cash that schools need to get these expensive and technology-heavy programs off the ground, but they have no intention of funding them forever. “The schools that we fund, all eventually balance on California public dollars,” Greenberg said. “The hope would be that by finding new models and new ways to meet the needs of each kid that we can still make excellent schools work on California funding rates.”

Greenberg says the fund will focus on schools in Silicon Valley to try and build an “innovation hub” in an area already known for taking risks. The idea is to connect educators interested in integrating technology into the classroom with tech entrepreneurs who can create the software, apps and tools that will be most useful to teachers. “This combination of world class entrepreneurship with front line educational expertise is extremely promising. And if we can’t make that intersection happen here, at the heart of Silicon Valley, then we don’t think it will be easy to make it happen anywhere,” Greenberg said.

HOW IT WILL WORK

Greenberg says the fund is willing to give up to $700,000 to about 25 schools if they can demonstrate a unique idea or way to implement blended learning that pushes the conversation forward. Grantees also must have strong leadership teams, a track record of success and a financially sustainable model. The fund expects schools to be able to offer their innovations on the same budget as a traditional California public school.

The fund isn’t pushing any particular model of blended learning like Rocketship, Khan Academy or the flipped classroom. Rather, they want teachers to evaluate what works and what doesn’t from those “1.0 models” and then collaborate with ed-tech entrepreneurs to develop new tools for the areas that have been neglected or don’t work well. “You start to mix those things together in a real school, with really good educators and really good kids who are bought into this vision and that’s when it starts to get exciting,” said Greenberg.

Blended learning is a relatively new concept with a mixed track record. Integrating certain types of technology into the classroom gives teachers and students real-time feedback so that each student can work at his or her own pace, and can give teachers accurate information that can help them better group students according to comprehension levels on a specific subjects. But educators point out that too often ed-tech focuses on improving test scores rather than on building creative thinking and a passion for learning in students and that schools still need passionate, innovative and dedicated teachers, no matter how kids absorb the content.

Greenberg agrees that it’s too early to expect schools across the country to buy into a blended learning model. But he does hope that some of the strategies that are piloted in schools funded by the Silicon Schools Fund will inspire other teachers and administrators to take elements back to their own schools.

“We see creating new schools that are essentially laboratories of innovation, that are trying many different approaches, all with the idea of making education more powerful for each student and each teacher,” explained Greenberg. In five years, he envisions that the Bay Area will have somewhere close to 25 examples of how blended learning could be done. Some of those schools could be charter schools, others public, some built from the ground up and others a transformed existing schools. He wants to see it all so that lots of new ideas and ways of doing things can be tested.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/10/17/what-will-work-in-new-blended-learning-experiment/feed/110_11.15_newtech_0505Charter School Network Offers Its Own Data System to All Schoolshttp://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/09/11/charter-school-network-offers-its-own-data-system-to-all-schools/
http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/09/11/charter-school-network-offers-its-own-data-system-to-all-schools/#commentsTue, 11 Sep 2012 19:00:25 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=23757Continue reading Charter School Network Offers Its Own Data System to All Schools→]]>By Lillian Mongeau

California-based charter network Aspire Public Schools is one of them. The school created a data system called Schoolzilla, a web-based data platform that is now available to any school who wants to use it for free. Teachers or administrators can sign up at Schoolzilla to get started. Aspire offers implementation of the system for a fee. So far, there isn’t a set price for the service; it depends on the degree of help each school needs to set it up.

The data tool, originally developed three years ago, allows teachers to synthesize data from multiple sources and create reports. Teachers can see whether the entire class is struggling on a particular math standard, for example, or whether specific students are falling behind. The idea is to help teachers decide what tack to take with individual students.

“Teachers spent hours pulling data out of the attendance system, then the gradebook, then the tests, then matching it all together.”

But academic performance numbers aren’t the only data captured. Since the platform accesses multiple databases at once, teachers can compare things like student absenteeism to their grades. Or they can compare students’ grades to their scores on standardized tests in the same subject. Or they can compare the frequency of calls home with the number of disciplinary actions needed at school.

“Teachers spent hours pulling data out of the attendance system, then the gradebook, then the tests, then matching it all together in massive Excel spreadsheets,” said Anna Utgoff, Aspires’ director of learning technology. “It was a ridiculous thing for teachers … to be spending their time on. We’re putting this all on a really flexible reporting platform, so we can make 100 versions,” of new reports depending on what teachers request, Utgoff said.

“Having all those reports at their fingertips gives [teachers] more time to plan and teach,” Utgoff added.

Aspire created Schoolzilla with funds from a combination of philanthropic donations, revenue earned by implementing the full data system in several districts across the country, and a $3.1 million Investing in Innovation grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Like Aspire, Rocketship Education, a charter network with schools in Silicon Valley and across the country, has developed its own data system. And Aspire might spin off Schoolzilla into an independent start-up, much like LearnZillion, a for-profit education video site that was incubated at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington.

Rocketship Education, the Bay Area network of charter schools, is poised to grow big and bold in the next few years. Hinging its success on its own brand of hybrid learning — combining online and teacher-guided instruction in a tightly engineered school day — the charter network will grow from five schools open now to 25 by 2017-2018.

But it hasn’t been an easy trail to blaze. Skeptics from the San Francisco Unified trustees, which voted against approving a Rocketship charter in a low-income neighborhood, called the network’s tactics “an unsound educational program” and characterized its computer lab time as a “drill and kill” approach, according to a recent article in Thoughts on Public Education. In the end, however, the State Board of Education granted a charter to Rocketship.

“Instructors have to find the balance between occupying students with something fun, and giving them an opportunity to learn something important.”

The computer lab time they’re referring to is Rocketship’s now-famous Learning Lab, where students go twice a day, for 50-minute computer sessions in both reading and math. The online exercises are like short video games, featuring cartoon characters that reward students with points when they get the problems right.

Eight-year-old Xochitl Reece might not agree with the “drill and kill” characterization. Xochitl is a third-grader at Rocketship Los Suenos Academy in San Jose, and during a recent visit, was playing a math computer program.

“In math class, [the problems] are harder. And when I go to computer lab … I get them right. You learn more stuff, and it’s really fun,” Xochitl said.

For math teacher Alana Mednick, the Rocketship program makes good sense. “I don’t have to go through a lot of practice and kill and drill exercises,” she says (there’s that phrase again.) “They’ll be doing that using fun games and exercises, and in here they’ll be applying their practice knowledge. I think I’m allowed to be a teacher, more so because of this model, because I can teach to their general needs rather than having to play catch-up. So I’m teaching what I’m supposed to rather than what should have already been taught.”

Andy Jones, who analyzes trends in learning and technology at U.C. Davis, says computer programs can fill a huge hole in the learning process, allowing educators to focus on bigger things.

“Information that was once presented with a focus on recall and knowledge that can be delegated to technological implements, computer programs or web-based tools,” Jones said. “Instructors have to find what is the perfect balance between occupying their students with something that is fun, and giving them an opportunity to learn something important. That sweet spot is often difficult to hit for a programmer, or a textbook company or an instructor.”

Rocketship schools’ intense focus on test scores seems to be paying off. Their average API score is 868, far above public schools in similar low-income neighborhoods. At its flagship school, Rocketship Mateo Sheedy Elementary, where 91% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, the 925 API score is the same as the average of the Palo Alto School District, a much more affluent community nearby.

What’s more, an independent study released in August by SRI International, which conducted a randomized controlled trial using DreamBox Learning, one of Rocketship’s math computer programs, those who used the program for 16 weeks scored 2.3 points higher on the Northwest Evaluation Association math test than those who didn’t — the equivalent to progressing 5.5 points in percentile ranking (for example, from 50 percent to 55.5 percent).

According to Aylon Samouha, Rocketship’s Chief Schools Officer, those students’ gains are not only statistically significant, but the fact that they were achieved in such a short time — 16 weeks — indicates that using the program for an entire school year would show even greater gains.

Motivating Rocketeers to do well on tests is a priority at Rocketship schools, as evidenced by the signs that hang from classrooms on campus. Hand-written and printed signs read “90% of students will score 90% (or higher)”; “Shoot for 950” in reference to current the 925 API score at the Mateo Sheedy campus; and “Beat the Test.”

SILICON VALLEY INNOVATION AND MONEY

Rocketship schools’ location in the heart of Silicon Valley is no coincidence. It’s tapping into the area’s spirit of tech innovation and deep pockets. The company has received a huge influx of cash — $3 million — from Silicon Valley executives of companies like Netflix, Facebook, and Skype.

The money will be spent to improve Rocketship’s computer software used to assess students, generate learning plans that identify student needs, and manage all the influx of data that comes from each of the learning programs.

As the school charter network grows, it’ll be interesting to watch how it’s received by other school districts, and how or whether the company itself will change to keep up with the growth.

For this week’s event, he’s recruited media tycoon Rupert Murdoch to be a headliner. For those who don’t know what the controversial name has to do with education, it brings up some questions.

“I was dumbfounded. Rupert Murdoch as the keynote speaker? Would you want your children in a classroom with him?” said Ken Tray a San Francisco history teacher and union leader.

What Tray and others might not know is that last year, Murdoch purchasedWireless Generation, an ed tech company that produces learning software, and is behind the School of One program in New York, which tailors each students’ day based on data-driven performance records.

Patricia Levesque, from Foundation for Excellence in Education, says Bush has been on the forefront of provocative reforms, including expanding access to online schools.

In fact, the key focus of this year’s summit is innovation in classroom technology – specifically blended learning. Levesque says the foundation chose San Francisco as the site for the conference because of its proximity to the Silicon Valley, which is the heart of ed tech companies.

“Discussions on blended learning and technology are really about how to empower the teachers who are in the classroom,” Levesque said. “We hope lawmakers [who attend the conference] are going to think differently about how technology can extend the reach of a fantastic and effective teacher.”

Levesque says they plan to highlight San Francisco Flex Academy and Rocketship Education, a network of hybrid-learning schools, as models that should be replicated across the country.

The conference is expected to attract school superintendents, Los Angeles mayor, and education philanthropists from around the country.

UPDATE: According to the San Francisco Chronicle, teachers unions and activists who are part of the Occupy Wall Street movement that’s spreading across the country plan to protest the two-day event because of what they describe as “the selling of public education.” Murdoch is scheduled to speak tomorrow morning.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/10/13/jeb-bush-and-rupert-murdoch-spotlight-ed-tech-at-sf-event/feed/15663059043_70a1811de6_zRupert Murdoch is slated to attend ed tech event in San FranciscoWhy Should Schools Invest in Software?http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/10/12/why-should-schools-invest-in-software/
http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/10/12/why-should-schools-invest-in-software/#commentsWed, 12 Oct 2011 19:31:03 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=16002Continue reading Why Should Schools Invest in Software?→]]>A Rocketship student works at the Learning Lab using adaptive software.

The question keeps coming up: What technology should schools invest their money, time, and effort in? During this fraught time in our economy, the decision to invest in tools like adaptive software and other tech devices is sometimes portrayed as excessive or wasteful.

In Sunday’s New York Times, Matt Richtel and Trip Gabriel wrote about software program companies inflating their effectiveness in schools, and how they “ignore well-regarded independent studies that test their products’ effectiveness.” In the next couple of days, we’ll deconstruct the writers’ sources of information — namely the main source for their claim that the technologies are ineffective, the What Works Clearinghouse.

“It shouldn’t be a call to stop for investment, but a call to invest more, because we need to get it right.”

In the meantime, I spoke to Aylon Samouha, Chief Schools Officer at Rocketship Education, a network of charter schools in the Bay Area that uses software to reinforce basic skills mastery. (You can read more about their hybrid learning program and their competitive scores in this MindShift series). Samouha is in charge of the design and strategy of Rocketship’s hybrid learning model, as well as its teacher and principal training program, among many other things.

Samouha, who lives and breathes educational software and is consumed with finding the best way to integrate technology into the school day, has a very different perspective than what Richtel and Gabriel portray.

First, the facts. In an independent study released in August by SRI International, which conducted a randomized controlled trial using DreamBox Learning, those who used the program for 16 weeks scored 2.3 points higher on the Northwest Evaluation Association math test than those who didn’t — the equivalent to progressing 5.5 points in percentile ranking (for example, from 50 percent to 55.5 percent).

It’s important to note here that not all assessments are created equal, but Samouha believes that the NWEA is an adaptive diagnostic test and a dependable measure because “millions of kids taken it,” he said.

Those students’ gains are not only statistically significant, he said, but the fact that they were achieved in such a short time — 16 weeks — indicates that using the program for an entire school year would show even greater gains.

But Samouha is not a tech evangelist just for the sake of using tech. “It’s true that there’s a lot of time wasted on computers right now. There are wrong ways of doing this. But it’s so clear that we have to figure out how to educate students in the 21st century in ways that go beyond the traditional classroom model, which was created in the 17th century in Prussia. The fact that it needs to change is not a question in my mind.”

So how to make this happen? “The more we integrate software with what’s happening in the classroom, the better results we’ll see. That will take work and investment. Schools will have to invest time, content providers will need to invest time and energy into make it more plug-and-play and make it more integrated into the school day.”

But Samouha says the Times article proves the opposite of what the writers end up conveying. “It shouldn’t be a call to stop for investment, but a call to invest more, because we need to get it right,” he said.

What “right” looks like can be debatable, but Samouha believes he has it nailed down — at least in the case of elementary schools. His criteria for successful software are:

Aligned to common standards, “so we’re all speaking the same language.”

Data needs to be seamlessly integrated and programs need to be able to talk teach other so teachers can easily make sense of the data.

Rather than be standalone in their environment, they need to be part of the open Web, so they can be linked to each other. “Right now there are a lot of walls between programs, just like before Steve Jobs agreed to use Microsoft, so people using Macs couldn’t open Microsoft programs,” he said. “Those walls exist now, if you’re trying to quilt together a number of interventions to put the right thing in front of a child at the right time, it makes it much harder when those walls exist.

That’s what Samouha is working towards. But it won’t magically happen. It takes investment from schools, from vendors, from educators. “But we can’t just abandon ship and go back to the traditional school model.”

At the heart of this discussion for the general public and most major media is the question “why.” Why should we bother to invest in all this when we (adults) all turned out just fine with the way we were schooled? Why can’t just teachers keep teaching the way they have been?

Samouha believes that’s a false dichotomy. He’s not arguing that teachers should be replaced by software, but that students will benefit from an array of different learning methods. Software will help them practice drills and basic skills, but teachers will be always be the most important part of the equation.

“People are arguing that it’s either human beings teaching kids or computers,” he said. “But that’s not our answer for anything else. When I want to communicate with my wife, I talk to her in person, I use my cell phone, I e-mail and text, that’s the way of the world. But for some reason, education is exceptionally not like that.”

I also spoke with Samouha about the difference in quality between math and literacy software, and I’ll report back on that in the coming days.

Teachers who want to use technology in the classroom to its best potential typically face a problem dealing with computers that’s weirdly reminiscent of dealing with a roomful of bright but disruptive students: It can be too much of a good thing.

With sophisticated high-tech tools comes a deluge of data, and for a lot of teachers, finding the right resources at the right moment can be maddeningly difficult. What’s more, the most sophisticated programs, which deliver detailed reports about student progress, don’t share data–which means that teachers can wind up with multiple “data dashboards.”

So educational technology entrepreneurs are starting to offer up a bit of help for both of these programs, according to two reports in today’s EdSurge newsletter.

Combining data from different programs to help teachers avoid an air-traffic-control problem as they try to mix and match the tools they use.

In Mountain View, a startup nonprofit organization, EdNovo, is doing early “alpha” tests of a Google-like search program for helping teachers find exactly the right digital content at the right time. And in San Francisco, a firm called EdElements just got a huge boost of financing to support its work in building a unified “data dashboard” that can combine data from different programs to help teachers avoid an air-traffic-control like problem as they try to mix and match the tools they use.

First EdNovo: with a team of almost a dozen educators and engineers, former Google executive Prasad Ram is building a free search engine he calls “Gooru” to retrieve digital content starting with math and science. So far, the team has tagged and organized 20,000 free resources on the web, along with 1,200 class plans and “classbooks,” which are effectively playlists for learning. The effort is still very much under construction. Some 300 educators, including teachers at Oakland International High School, Milpitas Unified School District and FlipSchool are providing the first feedback. But Gooru promises to deliver what educators have long dreamed of: an education-specific search engine that pulls up timely and usable material for teachers. Educators can request a chance to try out the program here. [Update: Gooru is now open to any user.]

There are also a wide range of more comprehensive teaching programs that many schools are using to create so called “blended learning” models: fusions of teacher-led and computer assisted instruction. (Heather Staker of the Innosight Institute offers more detailed definitions of blended learning here.)

A bevy of ed-tech programs are emerging to serve as this kind of teacher’s right-hand aide: for instance, Dreambox Learning helps K-3 students develop their math skills; Compass Learning offers a broad suite of K-12 programs.

In most cases, teachers trying these programs out want to mix and match their options like picking out a box of mixed chocolates. Why not some Dreambox for math and then a little Accelerated Reader for language arts?

But the nail-biting truth about mixing up these sophisticated learning programs is that each one has its own, carefully designed “data dashboard.” Use three programs and you’ll wind up staring at three data dashboards. What’s needed is a way to get the programs to talk and share data–or a way to build a single “data dashboard,” that can channel the reports from individual programs and portray a single, coherent report.

There are a handful of efforts to build such uber-dashboards. Charter school program Rocketship Education has been growing its own, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation is also fostering the development of common standards that could be used more broadly by any program. New York City’s school district has worked with a program called Desire2Learn to craft a dashboard.

And then there’s San Francisco EdElements, run by Anthony Kim. Kim is one of the country’s leading blended learning consultants. He’s worked with KIPP and IDEA schools to create blended learning programs in those schools. Along the way, his team has begun partnering with different ed-tech companies to wire up their programs to return data to a single dashboard–something Kim calls a “Hybrid Learning Management System.” So far, Kim’s team works with 15 different vendors.

Silicon Valley executives — CEOs and COOs of companies like Netflix, Facebook, and Skype — have funneled $3 million to Rocketship Education this year that will be used to refine its sophisticated software system.

The money will be spent to improve four components of Rocketship’s computer software: assessment of students, the way it generates learning plans that identify what students need to learn, a scheduler that uses the learning plan to choose from a bank of lessons that’s best suited for each student, and a management system that keeps track of all that information.

With a more streamlined process, the aim is to lighten the load for teachers who have to analyze all the data for each student, and to have the software recommend better default learning plans that teachers can easily adjust for students, according to co-founder John Danner.

“There’s a sense in Silicon Valley that there’s got to be more in the way that Silicon Valley solves problems that can be applied to education.”

It’s a software engineer’s dream — or nightmare — however you look at it. Creating a system that takes into consideration 1,000 standards that students need to master from K-5, and lessons mapped to each of those objectives offered by dozens of different vendors.

“There’s a lot of nuts and bolts work to just make it simple for a student to sit down, log in, and start working on the right lesson at the right time,” Danner said.

Though it stands to be improved, so far the system seems to be working. According to Danner, 90 percent of students who are below grade level move up to basic proficiency or beyond within one year of entering a Rocketship school, Danner said. So far, there are three schools in San Jose with plans to add two more next year. Danner expects to grow the network across the country.

With its heavy emphasis on high tech engineering to resolve a lot of the logistical issues, support for Rocketship from Silicon Valley shouldn’t come as a surprise — and that’s exactly Danner’s goal.

“There’s a sense in Silicon Valley that there’s got to be more in the way that Silicon Valley solves problems that can be applied to education,” he said. “Education has been this monolithic thing that’s been left on its own, there hasn’t been a lot of innovation or significant disruptions. And without that, it doesn’t seem like we’re going to get a public education system that’s the best in the world in the next 10 or 15 years, which is what we need to be competitive.”

Rocketship straddles the line between Silicon Valley-style tech company and a traditional school organization, he said. “We’re very humble about the fact that schools are hard to do, much harder than software companies,” he said.

The appeal to donors comes from the fact that Rocketship approaches education with a tech company’s perspective.

“And now Rocketship needs to deliver on that and show that we can develop a better system and reinvent the way a school works and scale it in a way that’s higher quality,” he said.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/11/silicon-valley-execs-funnels-3-million-into-rocketship/feed/0Learning-LabStudents using computers at Rocketship's Learning Lab.Five Lessons Learned from a New Charter Schoolhttp://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/06/five-lessons-learned-from-a-new-charter-school/
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The Rocketship network of charter Schools in San Jose is fairly new — the first school just opened in 2007. But from an observer’s perspective, a few lessons can be pulled from the way the young network has engineered the design of the school system. Can these ideas be applied to any school, whether they’re charter, private, or traditional public school?

THE CAMPUS IS ONLY THE SETTING. When it comes to school, innovation in the way a student learns lives in the circuitry of the way the day is designed. For a school that’s known as one of the pioneers of hybrid learning, the campus of Rocketship Mateo Sheedy is decidedly traditional. Classrooms, playgrounds, and the school’s office look like any other. In fact, I’d argue the campus is more modest than many I’ve seen. Students sit on the floor of the Reading Center for their individual reading times. The computers are sectioned off from the cafeteria with dividers. Students are squeezed next to each other on the only available seating in the lunch room. What makes it different is the inventive schedule that guides how and what students learn, making most of the educators’ time and effort. With all the discussions about the future school day, it turns out that it might actually not look so different than today.

SMART, ADAPTIVE TECHNOLOGY IS KEY. Finding the “Holy Grail” of individualized learning when it comes to technology depends on how well the computer programs work with students’ learning levels. Rocketship administrators believe the ones they’ve chosen do the job. As spokesperson Judith McGarry described it, remediation happens seamlessly until each student is ready to move to the next level. Granted, these are fairly simple subjects in K-5 grades. The true test will come when or if it moves into middle school curriculum and beyond.

SCHOOLS CAN DO MORE WITH LESS. Because a portion of students’ day is spent in the computer Learning Lab using the adaptive technology, hiring an extra teacher for that period is not necessary. The labs are monitored by teacher aides, who mostly answer questions and try to keep students focusing on their work.

TEACHERS NEED TO BE VALUED. Offer professional development ideas, time and ways for them to collaborate, training in technology tools, and most importantly, value their ideas for what they want to bring to their own classes.

KEEP TINKERING. Rocketship was co-founded by John Danner, a former software engineer who created the design of the school day. The team continues to iterate on the network’s system. They’re in the midst of creating a teacher’s dashboard that tracks students’ progress on the computer programs for teachers. They continue to adjust the schedule with each new idea and change and find new ways to improve depending on what works and the community’s feedback.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/06/five-lessons-learned-from-a-new-charter-school/feed/0RecessAstroturf on the playground provides a spot for kids to play and congregate.A Look Inside Rocketshiphttp://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/06/a-look-inside-rocketship/
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]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/06/a-look-inside-rocketship/feed/0Sintia’s houseSintia Marquez, a fifth grader at Rocketship, lives in this one-bedroom guesthouse with her mother, sister, and brother.RocketeersRocketship students show respect and empathy as part of the school's core values.Digging InAnother view of the Reading Center, where students sit criss-cross and dive into their books. The lunch room is on the other side of the dividers.Reading CenterStudents have time to read on their own at the Reading Center.Learning LabStudents from K-5 rotate through the Learning Lab throughout the day, working on computer programs that progress them at their own levels. The setup is by no means fancy. Computers and students are separated by cardboard dividers.Lunch TimeThe school cafeteria is the heart of the Rocketship Mateo Sheedy campus. The computer Learning Lab is just on the other side of the dividers at the far end of the room.Student ProgressAll the students in this classroom are ready to learn, as the clothespins indicate.LEARNMore motivating signs around classrooms emphasizing the school's core values.Motivating StudentsSigns hung around the Rocketship Mateo Sheedy campus encourage students to think about how they'll beat their 925 API score.College BoundUniversity flags line the perimeter of the school lunchroom. Every class is assigned to a college team.RocketshipThough it boasts a high-tech learning program, the Rocketship Mateo Sheedy campus looks like many other grade schools.RecessAstroturf on the playground provides a spot for kids to play and congregate.Shooting for the StarsThe mural captures the energy of the campus.How to Keep Good Teachers in the Gamehttp://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/05/how-to-keep-good-teachers-in-the-game/
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Engaging, motivated teachers are at the heart of every successful school. For schools like Rocketship, where 75% of teachers come from Teach for America, which recruits mostly recent college grads to commit to two years, finding ways to train and keep them becomes that much more of a priority.

What’s their strategy? First, they pay more than typical public schools – on average between 10 and 20 percent more, according to Judith McGarry, Rocketship’s spokesperson.

And since most of these teachers are “very young” — for many of them, it’s the first time teaching in a classroom – McGarry said teachers’ progress is tracked closely. Every eight-week assessment of students’ progress is compared to the teachers’ own eight-week assessments.

“We reward talent, provide an upwardly mobile career path, and give them a reason to believe that this could be a sustainable work-life balance.”

“We think that this constant feedback helps them ramp up really quickly,” McGarry said of new teachers. “So we do actually use student achievement and student testing as one measure of how we evaluate teachers’ effectiveness. But we don’t really have the problem that the Los Angeles School District did, because, first of all teachers walk in knowing this is how they’re going to get evaluated, and second, it’s one of multiple measures that we use for their effectiveness.”

Other measures include meeting regularly with the principal to work on their professional growth plans, collaborating closely with other teachers, and working with academic coaches. Sometimes classes are videotaped, so teachers and coaches can evaluate the way the class is run play-by-play, and sometimes educators wear microphones and earbuds to get live coaching while they teach.

It’s all part of the teachers’ “professional growth plan,” which defines their trajectory at Rocketship. First-year teachers are called “Emerging Fellows” and attend leadership workshops and have the chance to think about whether they want to move ahead in the Rocketship school system.

In their second year, teachers are called “Rising Fellows” and, along with their teaching duties, must manage Learning Lab staff, who are typically teachers’ aides. They’re also given the chance to take over managing the school during the fall and the spring for certain increments of time.

Third-year educators are called “Principal Fellows” and become more involved in managing the school while going through coaching and professional development.

It’s an intense program that requires a great deal of motivation to carry through, but that applies to any motivated teacher, not just TFA recruits. McGarry said.

“The TFA burnout problem is frankly the problem that any teacher faces who has promise and drive and motivation, and it’s been going on for years,” she said. “It’s because teaching has been a profession that has not rewarded or encouraged innovation or hard work or talent. So we actually have a lot of structural differences in our network that do all those things: reward talent, provide an upwardly mobile career path for teachers, and give them a reason to believe that this could be a sustainable work-life balance.”

Tiffany Gee teaches math at Rocketship.

Teachers give out their phone numbers to students, and students call them. Tiffany Gee, who teaches math at Rocketship Mateo Sheedy, says some students call on a regular basis, but she doesn’t necessarily mind because “it helps them know they have a regular resource they can count on.”

“A lot of parents don’t remember how to do something. It’s been a long time since they’ve done fifth-grade math! So I’m there to help at night,” she said.

Does she wish she had a break in the evenings after intense days of teaching? “Once in a while I wish I had a break, but for the most part, students are short on the phone,” she said. “They’re not calling because they want to bother me. Plus, they have no excuses for not having homework done.”

“If we pop into any classroom right now and you ask a teacher how hard they’re working, they’re going to tell you they’re working really hard, so we make no mistake about it,” she says. “But, at the network level, we’re absolutely obsessed with figuring out how to make the workload reasonable for teachers, because we want these people in our network for a very long time.”

By offering them a detailed trajectory, avenues to progress within the network even if they’re not interested in teaching per se, Rocketship hopes to provide enough incentive to keep them interested in staying.

For Gee, who has taught public schools in Gilroy, Calif., and in China, teaching is fulfilling — at least for now.

“I’m not sure how long I want to be a teacher,” she says. “I’m taking it one year at a time. I’ll see where it takes me and where I go from here. I’m not really sure.”

Ask little Peter Cournoyer, a second-grader at Rocketship Mateo Sheedy, what empathy means, and he describes it this way:

“It’s when you help someone if they need help or if they get hurt,” he says, (which he’s had to do a few times).

Empathy is one of Rocketship’s four “core values,” in addition to respect, responsibility, and persistence, which define the school’s culture and identity. The words are plastered all over the school’s walls as a reminder and reinforcement.

From the staff’s perspective, these values do more than just move students forward academically, says Joya Deutsch, a principal-in-training who will open a fourth Rocketship campus next fall. “It’s also about building character,” she says. “When they leave the fifth grade, we want them to be able to not just engage in middle school, but to be able to be successful as citizens in the community.”

“I want them to develop not only critical thinking skills, but dispositions and attitudes toward learning that they’ll take with them.”

Teachers hand out rockets for good behavior in class and all around school — a purple “Value” rocket for showing empathy, for example, when a friend falls on the playground and they help out. The rockets can then be redeemed for raffle or prize at the end of the week.

Intangible values like empathy and persistence can be woven through the school’s culture by reinforcing good behavior and by setting examples. But how do you teach critical thinking?

“The stuff that doesn’t get measured, but frankly is what makes people successful in life is critical skills thinking,” said Judith McGarry, spokesperson for Rocketship. “It’s the ability to ask questions, to probe, to think creatively and to really understand the ‘why’ of something. There aren’t any standardized tests that measure that.”

At this school, teachers use what they call “Rocketeer Reasoning”: a set of questions that can be applied to almost any content they learn, like “Why are we learning this?” or “How is this important”?

Second-grader Peter Cournoyer learns about empathy at Rocketship.

“We teach them to be meta-cognitive about what they learn,” says literacy teacher Jaclyn Vargas. “My fifth-grade students are leaving and going to all different kinds of middle schools next year. I don’t have control over their educational experiences from this point forward, so I want them to develop not only critical thinking skills, but also dispositions and attitudes toward learning that they’ll take with them regardless of their educational setting.”

Students are also expected to “dress for success” in crisp uniforms. “They should look professional, with their shirts tucked in, because this is essentially their job to be a student right now. So we’re teaching them to understand what it means to be successful when they’re adults, as well,” Deutsch says.

And of all this ties together with the pervasive emphasis on self-confidence. One of the many signs around the school states: “Our background or neighborhood doesn’t mean we aren’t smart.”

COLLEGE BOUND

University flags ring the school's cafeteria and Learning Lab to reinforce its college-bound culture.

Students’ paths to college is firmly laid at Rocketship from the time they start kindergarten. Each class is assigned a specific university and named after its team: the Long Horns, the Tarheels, the Golden Bears, for instance. And those schools’ flags are hung along the entire perimeter of the Learning Lab/cafeteria where students congregate multiple times a day.

Every fall, the school takes a pilgrimage to a university. Last September it was to the University of California, Santa Cruz. Eleven school buses were filled to capacity with students and parents from the three Rocketship schools – more than 1,000 people in total.

“We had five-year-olds asking questions about what they need to do to prepare themselves to come to this school,” said Preston Smith, co-founder and Chief Achievement Officer of Rocketship. Kids and parents were playing soccer on the field and soaking up the collegial atmosphere.
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For many of them, both parents and teachers, it was their first time on a college campus – ever. “What we want to do is help them visualize, ‘This is what’s in store for your kids. This is what you should expect from your child,’” McGarry said.

PARENT PARTICIPATION

Cultivating a strong connection between the school and parents is another top priority at Rocketship. School administrators and teachers must maintain a close relationship to ensure that expectations of each student is the same at home as it is at school.

In addition to a home visit once a year, teachers and administrators find ways to involve parents in the school — which can be difficult, since most of them have not one, but two jobs in this working class community. Still, the school encourages parents to volunteer about 30 hours per year.

One of many motivating signs around the school.

During my visit a few weeks ago, I met several parent volunteers who were helping in the cafeteria, as well as monitoring the Learning Lab. Some of them started out as volunteers but are now employed by the school.

“We try to provide a medley of opportunities for parents to get involved,” McGarry said. “For example, one of our parents is a terrific contractor. He has come in and done his volunteer hours by helping us with various projects around the school. So we’re very sensitive to the fact that parents can’t come during working hours because they’re working people.”

Parent participation goes beyond volunteering at school. In addition to being encouraged to voice their opinions at community meetings, parents also have a say in which teachers are hired at their school. The administration sets up a reception to meet final candidates and get parental input, McGarry says.

“It also teaches us because a huge part of a teacher’s life is interacting with parents, and if we’re able to see candidates in that venue, then that’s a great way of finding out,” she says.

Another goal of pulling parents into the process is to convey the idea that parents have a right to expect a good education for their kids, not just at Rocketship, but beyond. They want parents to expect open communication with teachers, high achievement standards at the school. “We want people who are advocating for better education, people who really care about what’s going on,” she says. “That’s the tipping point.”

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/04/rocketships-culture-respectful-empathetic-and-college-bound/feed/0Rocketship girlsRespect and empathy are a big part of Rocketship's school culture.PeterSecond-grader Peter Cournoyer learns about empathy at Rocketship.collegeUniversity flags ring the school's cafeteria and Learning Lab to reinforce its college-bound culture.LEARNsignOne of many motivating signs around the school.Hybrid Learning Comes to Life at Rocketshiphttp://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/03/hybrid-learning-comes-to-life-at-rocketship/
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Sintia Marquez in Rocketship’s Learning Lab, where she uses adapative technology that moves at her level.

When it comes to a student’s education, expectation is everything. What parents and educators expect from each student, and what she expects from herself, has a tremendous effect on how a student fares in school.

Though she’s naturally a high achiever – well above grade level in both literacy and math – that foundation of support and encouragement from her parents and teachers is helping her forge ahead, even in a public charter school where more than 90% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch and 70% for whom English is a second language.

Sintia’s mother was allowed to progress only to middle school in Mexico. She’s a housekeeper now, and her father finds work as a contractor and a restaurant worker. “Sintia can’t say that I have a career that she can be proud of,” said Livier Maria Marquez in the one-bedroom guesthouse she shares with her husband and two daughters. “One of my hopes is for her to go to college. She really wants to go to Stanford or Santa Clara.”

“Remediation occurres in this sort of seamless, automated way.”

If the present is any indication of the future, Sintia is well on her way there. In June, she’ll graduate from Rocketship, one of three branded charter schools in the area that has plans to expand across the state and across the country. The school offers open enrollment and receives funding from local, state, and federal taxes, as well as from venture capital.

Since she transferred from a nearby public school in fourth grade, Sintia has been able to progress at her own advanced level with the help of the charter school’s hybrid learning system. With this system, teachers teach high-level concepts in class, and students practice those theories in a computer lab.

It’s all part of a highly engineered, tightly structured block schedule that moves students through classrooms and computer labs, with time for recess, lunch, and outdoor activities throughout the day.

“They’re transitioning from class to class the way high school kids do,” said Judith McGarry, spokesperson for Rocketship (who has since left the organization). “You’ll see how a topic is being introduced in social studies and it gets carried through into math, etcetera.”

Here’s how it works: A student starts her day with a literacy teacher, for example, for a three-and-a-half hour block of time during which the class practices basic grammar skills, works with guided reading programs, rotates through science or social studies lessons, and works on writing skills. After lunch, the student goes to a different teacher’s class, where she works on math for the next one hour and 45 minutes.

Then it’s time to go to Learning Lab, a computer area cordoned off by dividers that shares space with the school’s modest cafeteria. In the Learning Lab’s Reading Center, students read independently at their own level for 30 to 45 minutes everyday (Sintia is reading Twilight and loving it), then take a break with P.E. outside. They then return to the computer rotation, where they spend 30 to 45 minutes on adaptable learning programs.

In the lab, the 1st graders log in by selecting from a group of images that acts as a personal password, and then race through a short assessment that covers math and reading problems. Faced with the prompt “Put all the striped balls in one basket and all the polka-dotted balls in the other basket,” a student named Jazmine uses her mouse to move the objects to their places. Then it’s on to the core activity of her 90 minutes in the lab: a lesson on counting and grouping using software from DreamBox. The scenarios are slightly surreal—more objects to move, in this case mostly fruit, and the reward for getting it right involves an animated monkey bringing yet more fruit to a stash on her island—but she and most other students take on the task assiduously. It may be a lesson, but that’s not how Jazmine sees it. “This game is really easy,” she says. A bit later, she’ll read a book from a box targeted at her exact reading level, and make a return visit to the computer to take a short quiz about what she read.

Rocketship uses educational programs that are adaptive — they help students progress at their own level and really achieve individualized learning, the Holy Grail of education.

Students spend 30 to 45 minutes reading at their own level in the Reading Center.

McGarry describes it this way, using an example of a student learning two-digit addition: “If she’s really struggling, the program sees that in terms of the way she’s playing the game. So the program will just unobtrusively and automatically back her up into the building block skills that go into two-digit addition. Once the program sees that she’s doing just fine there, then she’ll try once again to move into that two-digit scenario. That’s how remediation is occurring in this sort of seamless, automated way.”

And since most kids don’t have computers at home, McGarry said, “they love going into Learning Lab, because it’s really fun for them and they get to play.”

The programs they use are:

DreamBox Learning (Math)

Reasoning Mind (Math)

ALEKS Quicktables (Math)

Headsprout (Literacy)

Rosetta Stone (English Language Development)

The day is long – from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., but for someone like Sintia, that’s not so bad.

“Sometimes I’m tired because I have a bad day, but everyone has a bad day,” she says. “But I like it because you can spend more time with friends, and you can better understand what your teachers are talking about.”

For kids who are struggling – including those with learning disabilities or in special education programs – the school provides a Response to Intervention program, where they learn with tutors in small groups. In a large classroom furnished with big, round tables, students rotate in throughout the day for 30-minute intervals for more focused, individual help.

The heart of Rocketship is not just use of computers and a grid schedule, though. Hybrid learning (they don’t call it “blended learning” because the computers aren’t blended into the class per se) is a huge component of the school’s secret sauce. But other important factors contribute to the package: a powerful school culture, strong emphasis on assessments (for better or for worse), and a focus on teacher retention and professional development. More to come on those topics.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/03/hybrid-learning-comes-to-life-at-rocketship/feed/2SintiaSintia Marquez in Rocketship's Learning Lab, where she uses adapative technology that moves at her level.Screen shot 2011-05-03 at 11.50.05 AMreadinglabStudents spend 30 to 45 minutes reading at their own level in the Reading Center.